(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to automatic sewing apparatuses and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for automatically withdrawing a length of tubular knit fabric from a pre-knitted roll to form a hosiery blank, closing the toe portion of the blank, and removing the sewn blank from the machine.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the manufacturing of knitted foot covers it is conventional practice first to manually withdraw a length of tubular knit fabric from a pre-knitted roll. A portion of the withdrawn length is then cut to a prescribed length to form a hosiery blank and the toe portion of the predetermined length is then sewn. The above sequence of steps generally has resisted automation because of the manual dexterity required to handle and orient a length of tubular knit fabric with respect to a sewing machine.
There have been earlier attempts at automatically handling a plurality of pre-cut hosiery blanks supplied from a series of knitting machines or other sources. Once such machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,817 issued to Bell et al. However, the apparatus as taught by Bell is a complicated system which automatically orients hosiery blanks from a conveyor, selectively transfers the blanks from the conveyor to an assembly by means of a pickup assembly, sequentially conveys a plurality of the blanks to an automatic toe closing machine, evertes the blanks and sews the toe portion of the blanks. In addition, the apparatus as taught by Bell does not provide any means for withdrawing a portion of tubular knit fabric from a pre-knitted roll to form the pre-cut hosiery blanks.
Thus, there remains a need for a new and improved sewing apparatus which is operable to automatically withdraw a length of tubular knit fabric from a pre-knitted roll to form a hosiery blank, close the toe portion of the blank, and remove the sewn blank from the machine.